Halo: CEA is now available in The Master Chief Collection on PC

[Watership]

I'm happy the games are on PC, and especially on Steam, but I'm disappointed they have lingering issues - some of which have been around for a long time - and the lack of things like separate graphical options after all the talk of it being a PC port "done right."

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I need to see the PC options to comment on them, but was Reach also lacking in a lot of options? I wonder how much of this is leftover Bungie code where options are "Our way or the highway". I'm sure the PC port will be mostly well received and they were address the major bugs. The real problems are the scopes of peoples priorities and how one issue can make/break it that one aspect of the community. No remaster or port will ever satisfy all of them, and it's been a problem with the Halo community for a decade.

 

[Tremorah]

Im still in the opinion that this game would benefit greatly from a map

So nostalgic going through the beginning again tho, graphical upgrades look good too

 

[Listai]

Jeez you people weren't kidding. The remastered graphics look terrible, there's no cohesive art direction behind them.

 

[Huey]

Jeez you people weren't kidding. The remastered graphics look terrible, there's no cohesive art direction behind them.

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Was just coming in here to post this.. I actually can't believe these are what shipped. They are a fundamental misunderstanding of the art in the original game. I love having this game in widescreen 4k high framerate - and the original visuals look absolutely gorgeous - but I can't imagine ever wanting to play through it with the anniversary graphics.

Probably the worst remake visuals I've ever seen.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

I found some videos where a robot keep talking, are they something created for the remaster ? I don't remember seeing it the first time I played Halo CE

 

[funky]

Jeez you people weren't kidding. The remastered graphics look terrible, there's no cohesive art direction behind them.

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It reminds me of one of those mods that tosses a bunch of high res textures and post effects at a game with no regard to art design. Like the Half Life 2 cinematic mod or something trashy like that.

Its technically "better" but its gosh is it ugly

 

[Deleted member 54292]

Jeez you people weren't kidding. The remastered graphics look terrible, there's no cohesive art direction behind them.

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Yup. Makes me sad that 343 was okay with such a drastic art style change for CE though. The atmosphere and essence of each level was completely ignored :/ Fortunately, Halo 2 anniversary corrected this and was closer to the original art style.

 

[Listai]

Was just coming in here to post this.. I actually can't believe these are what shipped. They are a fundamental misunderstanding of the art in the original game. I love having this game in widescreen 4k high framerate - and the original visuals look absolutely gorgeous - but I can't imagine ever wanting to play through it with the anniversary graphics.

Probably the worst remake visuals I've ever seen.

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The Secret of Mana remake would like a word.

It reminds me of one of those mods that tosses a bunch of high res textures and post effects at a game with no regard to art design. Like the Half Life 2 cinematic mod or something trashy like that.

Its technically "better" but its gosh is it ugly

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100% it's like they went on google images and sorted by high resolution.

Yup. Makes me sad that 343 was okay with such a drastic art style change for CE though. The atmosphere and essence of each level was completely ignored :/ Fortunately, Halo 2 anniversary corrected this and was closer to the original art style.

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Looking forward to seeing what this is like when Halo 2 drops.

 

[Gitaroo]

is HDR still missing like Reach?

 

[Spark]

Yup. Makes me sad that 343 was okay with such a drastic art style change for CE though. The atmosphere and essence of each level was completely ignored :/ Fortunately, Halo 2 anniversary corrected this and was closer to the original art style.

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I think they wanted to bring it in line with their new aesthetic vision of Halo circa 2012 and Halo 4, maybe like a power move? Unfortunately that new vision was ugly and now even Halo Infinite is going back to the OG, cleaner design. It sucks because the only remastered Halo we're ever going to get is stuck in this bygone era of ugly designs and ruined atmosphere while the series has thankfully progressed past it.

 

[Smash Kirby]

I think they wanted to bring it in line with their new aesthetic vision of Halo circa 2012 and Halo 4, maybe like a power move? Unfortunately that new vision was ugly and now even Halo Infinite is going back to the OG, cleaner design. It sucks because the only remastered Halo we're ever going to get is stuck in this bygone era of ugly designs and ruined atmosphere while the series has thankfully progressed past it.

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It would be nice to see them get the graphics redone the Halo 2:A looks amazing in my opinion, but it makes me wonder if at one point the assets were done for the original plan of a Reach engine remake of Halo CE:A and they just re-used these assets for the Saber engine overlay.

 

[elenarie]

Downloaded and installed. Played it on Xbox a few years ago, but I'll happily play it through again on PC. :)

 

[Wrexis]

I thought you guys were kidding but yeah, the remaster graphics are all over the place.

Keye's lip syncing in the first cutscene is freaking me out.

 

[Moose]

I thought you guys were kidding but yeah, the remaster graphics are all over the place.

Keye's lip syncing in the first cutscene is freaking me out.

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Keyes has a horse face.

 

[Wrexis]

It's just...too much?

Like 2001 Halo is too bland:

But 2011 Halo is over-saturated with detail.

I don't know how I'm going to play through it yet.

 

[scaryrobots]

It's just...too much?

Like 2001 Halo is too bland:

But 2011 Halo is over-saturated with detail.

I don't know how I'm going to play through it yet.

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I prefer the updated version. I can't use the classic mode anymore, it makes me want to puke.

 

[Protein]

Obligatory first page post

 

[SirMossyBloke]

I heard these remasters have HDR now. Is it any good, or did I hear wrong?

 

[Deleted member 10795]

Bought. I absolutely love Halo. It's like putting on a pair of comfy slippers at this point.

On the visuals, it'll always be old graphics for me. When playing Halo on Xbox One I always used to think it was interesting that the game holds up - both visually and gameplay wise - in the same way I believe many PC shooters from the same era do. "Early 2000's PC game" has a look and style to it that Halo shares. Now it's actually on PC, I've been able to put that to the test, and I'm enjoying it so much in the same way I can still flawlessly go back to Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, System Shock 2 etc.

 

[Elliott]

It's just...too much?

Like 2001 Halo is too bland:

But 2011 Halo is over-saturated with detail.

I don't know how I'm going to play through it yet.

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I prefer playing classic. CE's environments have a ghostly atmosphere the Anniversary graphics fail to capture.

 

[Metroidvania]

I forgot how.....just plain WEIRD that mixing is on the 'remastered' audio. Guns are way too loud, random voice clips are super quiet, and it just leads to this disconcerting feeling.

Can't wait for the re-remastered audio to get here.

I think that the 1st level is probably the worst offender in the 'overdone graphics' department (so far) - the forerunner architecture is a bit overdone in later levels, but not nearly as much.

 

[Thornquist]

can you split-screen co-op?

 

[Spark]

The main issue with the old visuals is that they're missing effects that the Xbox version has. If I were going to play with the old visuals I'd just play the OG PC port with the Refined mod, which adds 90% of the missing effects back, not this version which is almost was bad as the original unmodded PC version.

 

[Deleted member 54292]

Not sure if these issues were already present on the Xbox One version of the MCC, but I am noticing that when you rapid fire the Plasma Pistol the sound effect changes to the overcharge sound effect and gets kinda stuck on that sound. Also, songs appear to loop really rapidly with obvious quick cuts when the loop restarts.

 

[Chettlar]

I feel like I'm the only one who likes the new graphics quite a lot 🙃

 

[funky]

Does anyone else have a weird LOD thing going on around the player in some areas?

It was most obvious on the first level. There is a very clear circle around the ground near the player. Almost like they are in a bubble or something. Its only in some areas (interiors and foggy areas) and only on Remastered graphics.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

I feel like I'm the only one who likes the new graphics quite a lot 🙃

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They absolutely destroy the atmosphere in a lot of areas in the campaign. Especially in the Flood levels.

 

[Detective]

They absolutely destroy the atmosphere in a lot of areas in the campaign. Especially in the Flood levels.

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Thank You!
Been saying it for a long time. I always play it on classic graphics. Let's not mention the forerunner structures horrendous design, And the obsession with that blue light that made it all the way to 5.

 

[DSP]

this made me remember perfect dark remaster on 360, that was actually a very good update (at least in my memory, it is been a million years). I like to play that again. I don't like the art direction of CEA. I entirely skipped it when it came out on 360 because of it. The added 3D grass, which is fine, but it is such ugly grass and why there is so little of it. It just looks worse imo.

People comparing this with gearbox release are nuts btw, aiming alone is so much better than in gearbox port. It's pretty good overall.

 

[Green]

They absolutely destroy the atmosphere in a lot of areas in the campaign. Especially in the Flood levels.

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This was my thoughts of Halo 2 Anniversary High Charity, most of the rest looks fine, but that level misses the mark greatly for me. Doesn't look nearly as large or epic.

 

[Spark]

Does anybody know if the AI is fixed in this version? Aparently the original Gearbox PC port has slightly broken AI for the elites.

 

[Chettlar]

They absolutely destroy the atmosphere in a lot of areas in the campaign. Especially in the Flood levels.

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That one is definitely too bright, although while I like the Library in the original, the repetitiveness starts to make it feel more video gamey and hurt the atmosphere. I wish they'd done a better middle ground. Halo 2A was a bit better here. It was way too bright.

But like Silent Cartographer I really love in anniversary. I love how sunny and open and yet a bit fake it looks outside. It's perfect. And the internals while a tad overdone, are still cool.

There absolutely should have been a better middle ground, but I still like it idk. I know I'm pretty alone in that opinion.

 

[ultimaotaku]

That one is definitely too bright, although while I like the Library in the original, the repetitiveness starts to make it feel more video gamey and hurt the atmosphere. I wish they'd done a better middle ground. Halo 2A was a bit better here. It was way too bright.

But like Silent Cartographer I really love in anniversary. I love how sunny and open and yet a bit fake it looks outside. It's perfect. And the internals while a tad overdone, are still cool.

There absolutely should have been a better middle ground, but I still like it idk. I know I'm pretty alone in that opinion.

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Nah you aren't alone :D i'm right there with ya.

 

[TaySan]

I'm at the Library right now and man I know I'm going to be so over it by the end of it. Lol You should only play that level in classic mode.

 

[Filipus]

Yea I remember Halo CEA being a misfire in terms of new graphics. And people were mad because it messed up some stuff from the original too. I still think the original holds fine in 4k. The "bland" geometry is actually great for visual clarity.

 

[Abdozer]

I'm liking the campaign so far, been so long since I've played it but it still holds up.

What's the consensus on H2A's remastered graphics compared to H:CEA? Did they do a better job capturing the original game's atmosphere with that one?

 

[TaySan]

Yea I remember Halo CEA being a misfire in terms of new graphics. And people were mad because it messed up some stuff from the original too. I still think the original holds fine in 4k. The "bland" geometry is actually great for visual clarity.

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No aliasing on the original is nice and clean compared to the remaster.

 

[TaySan]

I'm liking the campaign so far, been so long since I've played it but it still holds up.

What's the consensus on H2A's remastered graphics compared to H:CEA? Did they do a better job capturing the original game's atmosphere with that one?

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They did a much better job on H2A that's faithful to the original.

 

[blackMamba1187]

I remember switching between classic/remastered on each floor of the library on x1 to keep it "fresh".

 

[Einchy]

It's just...too much?

Like 2001 Halo is too bland:

But 2011 Halo is over-saturated with detail.

I don't know how I'm going to play through it yet.

Click to shrink...

It feels like they didn't really know how to visually improve some of the bland areas without just adding a shit ton of detail, which completely kills the old art style. At least with the human and forerunner areas.

Other locations just change a bunch of shit for some reason. Like in the second level on Halo, all of the grass and sky are completely different. It completely kills the feel of that level.

 

[Abdozer]

They did a much better job on H2A that's faithful to the original.

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Ah sweet, can't wait for that one.

 

[Cheesy]

And the connection is still awful. Would be nice if some of these problems could be addressed, kinda wish I could refund at this point because what's the fun when you can't get into 75% of matches.

 

[TaySan]

It feels so good to be finally done with the Library lmao

 

[Shantae]

Does anyone have any information on how I might get a Switch Pro controller to work with this on PC? I don't have an Xbox controller current, and I was looking to try out the game pass version, but I'm not getting any inputs. Steam recognizes the controller as a Switch Pro Controller, but I don't have this on Steam.

 

[Deleted member 28962]

Does anyone have any information on how I might get a Switch Pro controller to work with this on PC? I don't have an Xbox controller current, and I was looking to try out the game pass version, but I'm not getting any inputs. Steam recognizes the controller as a Switch Pro Controller, but I don't have this on Steam.

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Use GloSC to add GamePass games as a Steam shortcut, you'll then be able to get any gamepad that works with Steam Input to work with those shortcuts.

 

[Railgun]

Does anybody know if the AI is fixed in this version? Aparently the original Gearbox PC port has slightly broken AI for the elites.

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They didn't really fix much of anything that's broken from the Gearbox port.

 

[Snagret]

I never had a problem playing co-op with Reach but MAN the lag is absolutely terrible for me in CE. We're literally in the same room on the same WiFi, the host usually doesn't have a problem but there are many times where the game won't recognize my inputs or my character is sliding around in weird ways, and occasionally the game just stutters out completely for a good 20-30 seconds while it threatens to disconnect the match. I remember reading them mention that fixing the co-op lag was outside the scope of what their studio was capable of which is a huge bummer.

 

[Cort]

Anyone else feel like a sort of input delay with M+Kb? It feels like initial Reach flighting to me, but I don't know if its just how Halo 1 is.

 

[Eketra]

is HDR still missing like Reach?

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I am very curious about this too.

 

[Gundam]

I'm happy the games are on PC, and especially on Steam, but I'm disappointed they have lingering issues - some of which have been around for a long time - and the lack of things like separate graphical options after all the talk of it being a PC port "done right."

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"Done right" in this case means "Functional", not "OG Xbox Perfect".

My guess is that they felt they took too long with Reach, and they needed to get CE out as early as possible. Relatively speaking, all the issues with CE here are relatively minor compared to OG MCC launch.